The Surprise on the Wabash
[BY MANSFIELD TRACY WALWORTH.] 
In 1791, before Kentucky was admitted into the Union as a State, an expedition was planned against the hostile Indians north of the 
Ohio River. Brigadier-general Charles Scott commanded the force. TWO Kentuchy [Kentucky] officers, who won distinction on this well-planned and admirably executed raid upon the redskins, were no tyros in the arts of war. Colonel Wilkinson of Lexington, but a Marylander by birth, had rendered efficient service in the war of the Revolution, having made the campaign of 1777, 
as Adjutant-general on the staff of General Gates. Colonel John Hardin, who, in the character 
of a volunteer, without commission, had 
command of the advance party and the direction 
of the guides from the Ohio River to the 
dangerous ground, was born in 1753, in Fauquier County, Virginia, and had been a captain in Morgan's famous rifle corps at the capture of Burgoyne.
He was a man of character and influence in Kentucky, an acknowledged leader in military 
and civil affairs, and to him many leading families of that State to day trace their ancestry 
with pride. He transmitted a dash of his 
heroic blood to his descendants. His grandson, 
the gallant soldier and jurist, Colonel John J. Hardin, whose name is curved among Kentucky's heroes on the exquisite monument at 
Frankfort, fell, at the head of his regiment, at 
Buena Vista. His great grandson, at present a lawyer of Louisville, was dangerous y [dangerously] wounded near Wytheville, Virginia, in the cavalry of General John Morgan, of the Confederate army.

   Officered by men of such experience and 
merit, the expedition marched four miles from 
the banks of the Ohio on the 23d of May, 1791. 
On the following day the march was resumed, 
and all pushed forward with the utmost alacrity
and industry, directing their route to Ouiattanan
in the best manner the guides and information regarding the country would permit. The
guides were by no means accurate in their 
acquaintance with the country, and the utmost vigilance was required at every step. By the
30th of the month they had penetrated the
wilderness one hundred and thirty-five miles, 
over a region cut by four large branches of 
White River, and many smaller streams with deep muddy banks. During this arduous advance 
a country was traversed which alternately
exhibited the most luxuriant soil and deep clayey bogs, from one to five miles  wide, and
rendered almost impervious by brush and 
briers. Rain fell in torrents every day, with 
frequent blasts of wind and thunder-storms. 
These obstacles impeded their progress, exhausted and wore down their horses, and destroyed 
the provisions.

     On the morning of the first of June, as the 
  troops entered an extensive  prairie, an Indian
  on horseback was discovered a few miles to the   
  right. A detachment was instantly sent off to  
  intercept him, but he escaped. As their advent 
  was probably revealed to the foe, it was immediately
  decided to advance with all possible
  rapidity, rather with the hope than expectation 
  of reaching the object sought that day, as the 
  guides were strangers to the grounds then occupied.    
 At one o'clock, (having marched, by 
 computation, one hundred and fifty miles, in all 
 from the  Ohio,)  as they penetrated a grove 
 which bordered on an  extensive prairie, they  
 discovered two small villages on the left, about
 two and four miles distant, respectively.

    The guides now recognized the grounds, and   
 informed the General that the principal town 
 was four or five miles in his front, concealed by 
 a point of woods which jutted into the prairie.
 He immediately detachod [detached] Col. John   
 Hardin, with sixty mounted infantry, and a troop of light horse, under Captain McCoy, to attack the villages to the left, and then moved off briskly,
with his main body in order of battle, toward 
the town, the smoke from which was discernible.   The result proved that the guides were at 
fault with respect to the situation of the town; 
for, instead of finding  it at the edge of the
plain through which the troops marched, they discovered, in the low ground bordering on the Wabash, on turning the point of woods, but a
single house presented in their front. Captain .Price was ordered to, assault that dwelling with 
forty men. He executed the command promptly
and killed two warriors.   

   Upon gaining the summit of an eminence 
which overlooked the villages on the banks of 
the Wabash,  General Scott discovered the
enemy, in great confusion, endeavoring to make their  escape over the river  in  canoes.
He ordered Colonel Wilkinson to rush forward 
with the first battalion. The order was executed promptly, and the detachment gained 
the bank of the river just as the rear of the
enemy had embarked, and, regardless of a brisk ,
fire kept up from a Kickapoo town on the 
opposite bank, they in a few minutes, by a well-directed fire from their rifles, destroyed all the savages with which fifteen canoes were 
crowded. Unfortunately, the Wabash at this 
place was several feet beyond fording. Colonel Wilkinson, ascertaining from the guides that 
the river was fordable two miles above, pushed.